Earlier this year, video game publisher Ubisoft shut down servers for The Crew, a 2014 open-world racing game. This would be expected and arguably even fine if it only removed multiplayer, but The Crew is one of those video games where a constant online connection is required, even if you play purely solo and own a physical copy. This shutdown rendered the game completely unplayable. An industrious group of fans, however, is bringing it back by taking matters into their own hands.
Rogue modders have built a server emulator that, in the words of video game outlet Kotaku, “will let players essentially trick the game into thinking the official Ubisoft servers are still operating like it’s 2014.” Dubbed The Crew Unlimited (a nod to The Crew‘s spiritual predecessor, Test Drive Unlimited), this emulator can even be configured to run locally on your own PC for a truly offline experience.
It’s set to be released on September 15 and is being made available free of charge, mostly so there’s less incentive for Ubisoft and its lawyers to get involved, per Rock Paper Shotgun.
The Crew‘s shutdown was central to the birth of the Stop Killing Games initiative that pushes European lawmakers to introduce legislation that would prevent video game publishers from permanently disabling games that have already been sold.
On its face, protecting access to old video games may feel far from the most pressing issue in the world, but it’s not hard to draw potential parallels between it and the increasingly connected services that come with the real cars of today.
Take, for example, GM’s Super Cruise semi-automated driving system. Great, industry-leading system in terms of its on-road abilities, but at the end of the day, it requires periodic connections to a GM server to receive data and updates on compatible roads. It’s also a paid subscription service past an initial free trial period. But what happens to Super Cruise on a 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ come, say, 2045? When GM itself has largely moved on from this system in its new offerings, but the few owners who have held onto their cars for 20 years would still like to use it? (Not an unfair ask, in my opinion, considering how much the thing costs.)
History tells us that, through official channels at least, those Escalade owners will very likely be S.O.L. But that’s where unofficial channels come in. Just as gamers are banding together to revive a decade-old Ubisoft racer, perhaps future tinkerers will put their hands and heads together to keep stuff like Super Cruise and other OEM-connected services alive.
Because nothing says luxury like driving a car that depends on some guy named Johnny in Ohio running a server emulator in his basement.
Top graphic image: The Crew Unlimited
As someone who’s been watching Ross Scott since he was still on Blip.tv and Shoutcast, I never would’ve expected anything Ross did to have ended up on an automotive publication.
Also, Stop Killing Games is about much more than just videogames.
The issue isn’t about “Oh I can’t play this old game anymore” the issue is “A corporation stole something from me that I already owned.” Before people start making arguments about who owns what or that it’s right for a company to completely deny access just by shutting off a data connection, realize that this was in core a single player game. You played by yourself. You had the option of connecting to the internet so that other players would appear when you freeroamed, but that was not a core component of the game’s mechanics. There was absolutely no reason for Ubisoft to create an update just a few years before the game was set to have online services sunsetted where said update removed all ability for the game to be run locally. If you go find old pirated versions from 2014 they run fine in singleplayer, but anybody who has any copy of the game from 2018 or newer can’t anymore. People who legitimately bought the game can’t play it anymore. And the thing is, the game forces you to update it. When it launches it is hard coded to download a Day 1 patch, and at the same time it also downloads all of the other later updates, including the one that puts in the server dependency. Stopping the update installation corrupts your game because it’s what’s called a “blob” install where everything is downloaded and installed at once. there’s no way to stop it.
And this behaviour is part of a wider push to quite literally, via the legal and public definitions, steal personal property after it has been purchased. Warner Bros. and Discovery pulled it with Sony and Apple where they rescinded the licensing deals for shows and movies, and instead of cutting off all future purchases and leaving it at that Sony and Apple deleted the shows and movies from users’ devices without their consent or knowledge. People like Ross Scott and Louis Rossmann had been warning about this since about 2015, and in recent years have actually been wading deep into the legal mangrove roots to try and put a stop to it. But they can’t if nobody outside of their respective audiences knows.
So thank you for publishing this.
But what happens to Super Cruise on a 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ come, say, 2045?
The same thing that happened to OnStar and other connected vehicles in 2022 when 3g networks shut down: the system will stop working while the cell modem drains the battery searching for a signal that doesn’t exist anymore.
As one YouTube video title keeps popping up in my feed:
“If buying isn’t owning, then pirating isn’t stealing”
Truer words have rarely been said.
“It’s cute that you think any of our vehicles are designed to last 20 years.”
-Automakers, probably
No thanks. It’s one thing to trust my entertainment to a nerd in his Mom’s basement*, it’s a whole other thing to trust my life to him.
*: Projecting? Of course not, I’m a nerd in my own basement, thank you very much. 😛
I feel like vehicles of course have some parts that are planned obsolescence, but for the most part they are exempt from this business tactic. But I fear it is coming faster than I am prepared for.
Hell yea.
I bought a copy off Ebay just to experience The Crew again before it got sunsetted, apparently discarding of my original copy years ago, and it was worth it.
This was the era before every publisher got scared of depicting illicit driving activity and en mass moved to the soulless, obnoxious festival formula. The Crew had a genuine plot, a revenge plot no less. It wasn’t Godfather material, but it was satisfying enough. There were actual characters moving the plot, as opposed to lifeless hype-droids draped in human flesh.
The world was also incredible. I do not understand why Ubisoft, a french company, eschewed international locales (Alps!) in favor of retreading the US and then moving to Hawaii. The original game had swamps, snow capped mountains, large cities, The Grand Canyon!, it had huge variety. Moving to a race fest in Hawaii lost anything interesting the original offered.
Of course, they added boats and planes in the sequel. Boats were never used outside of races and planes were primarily used to transport to races..
I still dream of a proper crew sequel set in Europe, with German autobahns, Italian rivieras, and Swiss Alps, all in one
Maaan. The Crew was one of the big reasons why I built my first gaming PC back then, and it’s still one of the few video game hype trains I joined that ended up being worth it. Even in spite of lots and lots of flaws, I still think it’s something special. The sequels ended up cutting out all of its soul, and I guess the industry just doesn’t want to make games like that anymore.
Also, fun fact: all the save files are stored server-side. I don’t know if they plan to, but they could probably tweak stuff like the grind economy without much problem.
I remember the map, particularly the East Coast portion set in autumn, being quite captivating.
Guess I’m going to have to grind to fully upgrade the Skyline touring car all over again.
With regards to the modern gaming era: you don’t own the game, you have only purchased the ability to play the game until such time as it’s no longer supported.
It’s also the case when you buy digital movies from Amazon.
In that context, the word “buy” does not mean what it has always meant since time immemorial.
I remember when that was called renting.
It’s *never* smart to pre-announce these things. Release and announce at the same time, let the code get widely distributed before Ubisoft brings out their lawyers.
So how long before we have an official Autopian Crew Server? Membership perk, maybe?
Somehow I logged over 300 hours on that game. And it wasn’t even that good of a game.
But I guess it was just what I needed at the time. And running the Landmark Tour (twice!) with steering wheel controls (oh my shoulders!) still stands as one of my most memorable gaming achievements.